Some thoughts and observations around my feelings about using Linux vs macOS.For the past week or so, I’ve been switching between Linux and macOS several times a day. I’ve been working towared full-time Linux for nearly a month, and planned to relegate the Mac to photo processing only. A sort of photo appliance. While doing that, though, I opened some of my favorite Mac-only apps, and immediately doubted the entire Linux experiment. Things would be much simpler if I used macOS for everything. Right?I’ve spent decades with tools like Tinderbox and DEVONthink and BBEdit. It would be hard for me to give them up.But something unexpected happened during all this. Switching to the Mac began to feel like a step backwards, experience-wise. (I told you it was unexpected). The Mac felt cumbersome. I felt as if I was spending most of my time on macOS moving and resizing windows. I’d end up with like 35 overlapping Finder windows for some reason. It felt chaotic, compared to the tidy window management of Hyprland.I tried using AeroSpace on the Mac for a couple days, but it wasn’t the same as Hyprland. There are other apps that try to emulate tiling, but none that I’ve tried felt satisfactory.The other unexpected thing is that I’m starting to prefer certain Linux key bindings. With Caps Lock mapped to Control, Ctrl-c and Ctrl-v are actually easier to hit on my keyboard than Command-c and Command-v. I do miss the Emacs-bindings-everywhere on macOS, but what if I spend more time with Vim bindings wherever possible? Will I miss the other bindings as much?I’m beginning to understand, and possibly even prefer, the Linux environment, but software is a different story.Photo editing in Darktable is getting easier for me, but it’s got nothing on the speed and ease of using Lightroom Classic or Capture One. This is why I planned to keep the Mac around, just for scanning and processing photos.Another factor is that while many of my favorite Mac apps aren’t available on Linux, nearly all of the Linux apps I’m interested in are available for macOS. It would seem like using a Mac would be a no-brainer, then. Except I can’t kick the feeling that Linux suits me, somehow. Or at least it could, with a bit more experience.I’m finding that I like how it feels to be using Linux1. It feels good knowing that it’s all mine to do with as I please on whatever hardware I want. I like not thinking about whether Apple will course-correct any time soon.So, where does that leave things? I’m not sure. If I’m to continue toward my goal of reducing & simplifying, running two operating systems is a bad idea, so I would like to pick one and stick with it. Knowing me, I’m not sure that’s feasible.One indication is that I switched to Linux in order to write this post, and it felt like a relief after being on macOS most of the day. That tells me something. Onward!Unfortunately, Omarchy comes with some uncomfortable baggage that I’m choosing to live with, for now. No need to scold me. ↩ ✍️ Reply by email